Medieval façade in the famous mountain village of Forza d'Agro by Silva Wischeropp

One of the attractions that tourists love most when they come to Sicily are the so-called Mafia routes. Despite the hard work that has been done to separate the island's image from the criminal phenomenon that has been perfected over the last 18 years by the TV series "Inspector Montalbano". Foreign visitors still love the places where the names of the Mafia bosses, the gunshots and the distinctive Sicilian accents of the 70s films resonate. The Godfather is one of them. Americans and Germans in particular are interested in this itinerary.

In the late 1960s, American director Francis Ford Coppola decided to make a film based on the novel by Italian-American writer Mario Puzo entitled "The Godfather". The story takes place just after the Second World War between New York and Sicily, but the location of the novel - Corleone - was already in full construction boom at the time, so they couldn't use it as a believable backdrop. The villages in the area between the Alcantara and Agrò rivers were then chosen, in particular Savoca and Forza d'Agrò in the province of Messina.
Forza d'Agrò is a village in the metropolitan city of Messina in the region of Sicily in Italy.

Forza d'Agrò is located 43 kilometres south of Messina. The inhabitants mainly work in agriculture.

The neighbouring municipalities are Casalvecchio Siculo, Gallodoro, Letojanni, Limina, Mongiuffi Melia, Sant'Alessio Siculo and Savoca.
The municipality has existed since the Middle Ages.

Forza d'Agrò was used as a location for some scenes in the mafia film The Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola starring Al Pacino and Marlon Brando, as the original location of Corleone was not suitable for filming. Forza d'Agrò was already the location for the film Jessica with Angie Dickinson in 1961.

Created by Silva Wischeropp.

This artwork is offered by Silva Wischeropp

Silva Wischeropp was born in the Hanseatic city of Wismar in the former GDR. Today she lives and works in Berlin. As an experienced and passionate travel photographer whose interests span a broad range, she focuses on portraiture, street life, reportage, documentary, travel, tourism, landscape and nature. In addition, she is known for her recordings in the fields of architecture and fashion. Since 2016, her new repertoire includes surreal digital photo collages. For 20 years she has been known in Germany and abroad as a creative photo artist. Her works have been widely published and exhibited. "The photographic image process represents my personal work and creation area. This means dealing with image worlds, politics, human needs and sensitivities. The camera expands my scope to meet that other reality. Photography makes me happy, creates joy, closes boundaries, opens new doors, widens horizons. The camera teaches me to see, to sharpen the view, to capture moments, to perceive fleeting moments that are not visible to others. I am a creative person, a picture-maker, who draws on herself, does not copy a lot and develops her own imagery. So I move between the poles, reach different fixed points, look behind the scenes. Out of the thousandfold existing I manage to bring out something unique, unique moments of the picture."

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